I've been briefly looking at the forums for a bit and decided to just take the red pill. I like these posts because, unlike other bodybuilding forums, when someone asks a question everyone seems to do their best in helping out. On other forums someone asks a question and the first reply is someone ripping them for asking and then 5 pages about the chastising.

I had always been super skinny as a kid...probably about 120lbs at 5'4" around when I was 20 years old. I stopped growing when I was 13, I guess. ha! no but I did stop. My diet my whole life consisted of McDonalds, Taco Bell, pizza and Hamburger Helper. After having a desk job for 6 years and many Red Bulls and honey buns later, it definitely caught up with me. Before I knew it I was 155lbs and never wanted to do anything but watch TV on the couch. That's after I moved to Austin and had been here for about a year or two (and also discovered Tex-Mex). I took a picture of myself from the side for a tattoo I was drawing for my arm and that's the picture that did it. I thought that I needed to do something and didn't know where to start, really. Then a co-worker told me about P90X that she was going to start doing that it was quite intense, and if you wanted to get in shape, it was the way to go. Deciding I couldn't start with something that extreme, I did Power 90, lost about 15lbs and then moved on up to the main event. I ate better and upon completion, was (as everyone who completes P90X says) in the best shape of my life. Feelin' great! Some injuries set me back a while so I couldn't do much (or lost the motivation to do anything) and gained some weight back.Then I watched Food Matters and Hungry For Change. I started eating better, watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, bought a juicer (haha) and started feeling better. then I watched Vegucated and became vegan. Thanks, Netflix. It's all good, though.

I'm not one of those "LOOK AT WHAT THEY DO TO ANIMALS" vegan, I guess I'm more of a "I don't want to participate in what they do to animals" vegan. This is coming from a meat and cheese lover who still doesn't like vegetables, but it's all good. I make it work. Juicing and Shakeology help me with my nutrition that I lack. I do eat a ton of spinach and try to eat some kale with every salad.

I've done, in order, Power 90, P90X, did 1 month of P90X2 and injured my ankle from running, Insanity and now I'm in the middle of Body Beast, which I love. Afterwards I plan on doing P90X again completely, then maybe P90X3?

I love working out, nature, going for hikes and staying healthy (I don't really care about body fat, just being healthy!). I'd love to get into Crossfit, but it's a little too pricey right now. I've read (and love) the Thrive book and am currently reading the Engine 2 Diet book. That's probably more than anyone will read about me haha but there you go! I look forward to being part of the community!

If you decide to do crossfit this might help. You don't need to pay for crossfit just google. You can find crossfit workouts for home really easy. If you have outdoor space you can also set up and build circuit stations out door for cheap and change them as often as you want.

Kora wrote:If you decide to do crossfit this might help. You don't need to pay for crossfit just google. You can find crossfit workouts for home really easy. If you have outdoor space you can also set up and build circuit stations out door for cheap and change them as often as you want.

Hey welcome to the community. At first I was like where's bat city, but I remembered the bat bridge, i visited austin last fall for the first time, got to hang with robert cheeke and one of my other close friends down there, go to fun fun fun fest, perform comedy at velveeta, ate some popcorn tofu. Austin left a great impression on me. There are quite a few forum members here from Austin, do you know any of the others already?

C.O. wrote:Hey welcome to the community. At first I was like where's bat city, but I remembered the bat bridge, i visited austin last fall for the first time, got to hang with robert cheeke and one of my other close friends down there, go to fun fun fun fest, perform comedy at velveeta, ate some popcorn tofu. Austin left a great impression on me. There are quite a few forum members here from Austin, do you know any of the others already?

-Dylan

Thanks! I do not know anyone, but I hope that will change soon! I'm glad to hear that Austin left a good impression... I knew I wanted to move here the second time I visited and have not regretted one second. There's so many places to go hiking and running, which I had never had been exposed to before, living in the turd city I used to. So much tasty food, too. It's fun fun fun!

Kora wrote:If you decide to do crossfit this might help. You don't need to pay for crossfit just google. You can find crossfit workouts for home really easy. If you have outdoor space you can also set up and build circuit stations out door for cheap and change them as often as you want.

Mini Forklift Ⓥ wrote:Great to have you in here, look forward to seeing you more around the forum. Have you considered starting up a journal?

Nice avatar as well, you look pretty solid... and I like all of the dumbbells in the background! MF

Thanks, man! I haven't considered a journal... probably because I don't get online too much to discuss working out due to the fact that I don't think my current size is anything to talk about (not YET!). But I guess I'm only in competition with myself! I'm big into the beachbody programs and they have the teambeachbody.com WOWY that you can track your workouts...but I have everything on paper. I can see where it would be a great idea if I was creating my own workouts, which when I have enough knowledge, I do plan on doing.Thanks for the compliment! Your arms look huge, nice work! I definitely racked up the credit card buying those weights... I have from 5lbs - 50lbs and for my size, that'll do just fine...for now. GOTTA MAN UP!!

Kora wrote:If you decide to do crossfit this might help. You don't need to pay for crossfit just google. You can find crossfit workouts for home really easy. If you have outdoor space you can also set up and build circuit stations out door for cheap and change them as often as you want.

Right on. Thank you much! If anything, it would give me a good head start in learning some of the routines.

Or you could ditch the crossfit and try strongman. Strongmans a lot more fun, you get to pull cars and throw kegs, deadlift cars, tire flips, ect.. Sounds more fun to me.

Oh man! I follow a vegetarian guy on instagram that does that stuff.. I think he recently pulled two fire trucks... that's crazy! Very inspirational, but that guy is huge! Maybe one day I will try to deadlift my girlfriend's Scion iq! It's only the beginning of my fitness journey, so who knows what could happen!